The European project HITTS (Heritage Innovation, Territory, Tourism and Sustainability), led by the Fundación Huerta de San Antonio (FHsA), held its kick-off meeting on February 15 and 16, 2024, at the Church of San Lorenzo in Úbeda. The project, which has received funding of one million six hundred thousand euros granted in December 2023 by the European Commission under the Interreg Sudoe program for its development over the next three years, consists of a total of 8 institutions and companies from Spain, France, and Portugal, under the leadership and coordination of FHsA.
The main objective of HITTS is to valorize the cultural, natural, and heritage singularities of the rural areas of SUDOE, based on the revitalization of cultural and natural heritage, artistic creation, and the development of public-private collaboration through innovative methodologies and tools to promote sustainable and ecological tourism.
According to Nicolás Berlanga, president of FHsA, “HITTS takes San Lorenzo out of Úbeda to share experiences and lessons learned with similar initiatives in Spain, Portugal, and France. All HITTS partners work to demonstrate that heritage and memory are sources of social and economic wealth.”
HITTS was created to promote and work for social cohesion and territorial and demographic balance through social innovation, heritage and service valorization, enhancing the role of culture and sustainable tourism in economic development, inclusion, and social innovation.
According to Nicolás Berlanga, HITTS is an initiative “to unite wills and thereby strengthen the vitality of our project, our neighborhood, our artisans alongside other associations and foundations in southern Europe. For us, it is a bet on the future. Our foundation was the result of a civic impulse that now expands its borders.”
The HITTS project consortium comprises complementary profiles and experts in heritage revitalization in rural areas. From Spain, the Fundación Huerta de San Antonio (Andalusia), the Fundación Valle Salado de Añana (Basque Country), the Asociación “Tierra de Libertad” (Castilla la Mancha), and the Faculty of Tourism, University of Murcia (Region of Murcia). From Portugal, the Municipality of Montalegre (Alto Támega) and the Comunidade Intermunicipal do Médio Tejo. From France, the Parc Naturel régional des Grands Causses (Occitania Region) and the company Aven Armand – Montpellier le Vieux SA (Occitania Region).
The project will begin with actions focused on involving all actors in the intervention areas through territorial laboratories. A participatory diagnosis by territory will be carried out to evaluate endogenous heritage, cultural and artistic resources, and 15 good practices will be identified. A common strategy for innovative and sustainable socio-economic development of rural areas in the SUDOE space will be designed, which will be the project’s main achievement, based on the tourist valorization of its cultural and natural heritage. Finally, HITTS proposes the implementation of pilot actions of the strategy, adapted to the singularities, conditions, and needs of each territory.
